


The Foundlings

by Lost_In_The_Muse



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Adopted Children, Adopted Sibling Relationship, Adoption, Adorable Baby Yoda (The Mandalorian TV), Attempt at Humor, Cute Kids, Din adopts all of the kids, Families of Choice, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Fluff with a healthy dose of angst, Force Bond (Star Wars), Force Sensitivity, Found Family, Foundlings, Gen, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, ManDadlorian, Mandalorian Culture, Parent-Child Relationship, Rey Needs A Hug, The Force Is Weird (Star Wars), This Is The Way, Unconventional Families, kids pov
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-02
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:08:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22519009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lost_In_The_Muse/pseuds/Lost_In_The_Muse
Summary: The day seven year old Rey tried to scavenge parts from the Razor Crest belonging to a Mandalorian was the day that changed the fate of the galaxy forever. Because she took one look at the itty bitty little green baby, and then there was no getting rid of her. Din just wants to know why he keeps finding so many unsupervised children running around.
Relationships: Baby Yoda & The Mandalorian (The Mandalorian TV), Baby Yoda (The Mandalorian TV) & Rey (Star Wars), The Mandalorian (The Mandalorian TV) & Rey (Star Wars)
Comments: 108
Kudos: 569
Collections: Astral_Phoenix108's Library





	1. The Adventures of Rey and her Sidekick Mr. Stick

**Author's Note:**

> I probably shouldn’t be starting another story when I have so many others that I need to work on, but I just couldn’t help it. The Mandalorian has become my favorite show so far this year and I’m also not entirely happy with The Rise of Skywalker narratively speaking so this fic is just me sitting here molding canon to do my bidding. Meaning that the timeline of events have been moved around, the ages of the sequel trilogy characters have been changed, and some backstories have been modified (but not all!).  
> Thank you for reading!

The adults were acting weird. Weirder than usual, at least. 

An off-worlder landed outside the Niima Outpost and sent all of the grownups running around as if the Jawas had stolen their best friend and refused to give them back.

Rey had only caught a glimpse of the stranger when they entered the house with the weird smelling drinks that kids were banned from entering. He looked like a droid with all of that sparkling silver armor and had a super big and super awesome blaster slung across his back. 

A couple of the stall owners in the market area started sprinting away the moment the stranger turned his helmeted head in their direction. 

There were a few groups of older scavengers standing in the peripheral. With their hands on their weapons, they looked like they were about to start a fight. But some of them had that glint in their face that Rey knew to mean that they were about to snag up a really good piece of scrap.

She didn’t get what all of the fuss was about. As cool as he looked, the Droid-man couldn’t possibly cause as much trouble as the Blobfish’s henchmen with their scary-looking weapons. 

There was only one Droid-man and like, a bazillion thugs working for the Blobfish! No one wanted to get on the Blobfish’s bad side, and that was a fact. 

But that armor- 

It was shiny, clean, and expensive looking. 

Three almost completely foreign concepts on Jakku.

Lots of people have told Rey that she was young and stupid, but even she could tell that even a tiny little bit of some of that metal could get her more food portions than she’d ever received in her life. 

So that’s when she hatched her plan. She’d grab her best friend Mr. Stick, and the two of them would follow the Droid-man back to his ship. Then, when the Droid-Man wasn’t looking, she’d climb aboard the ship all sneaky-beaky like and scavenge some of that metal. 

She’d only take a small amount. The Droid-man wouldn’t even notice, and Rey could get some good portions that would fill her belly with yummy yum yums. Besides, it didn’t look like he needed any extra metal since he had so much of it on his person. 

Rey hid behind some trash cans, eagerly watching the entrance of the adults-only restaurant, waiting for her target to come out. 

It didn’t take too long, the sun had barely moved in the sky before the curtained door was pulled away, and the Droid-man came out, his hand hovering over a small blaster attached to his hip. 

“So cool,” Rey breathed as she pulled Mr. Stick close to her, “Come on, let’s follow him!”

Rey quickly ducked her head and got down on her hands and knees. She crawled out from behind the trash cans and scuttled over to one of the abandoned market stalls. 

She was pretty sure that whoever ran that stand was one of the people who hightailed it out of the Outpost when the Droid-man arrived. But in their hurry, they left behind stacks upon stacks of crates and boxes behind the counter that she could use as cover. 

Rey sat down and peeked out of her little hiding spot, moving Mr. Stick with her so that he could also see. 

The Droid-man walked right past Rey’s position without noticing her, but then he stopped just a few paces away. The sun silhouetted his form, and little beams of orange and gold bounced off the edges of the armor. His cape billowed in the light breeze. 

Rey covered her mouth and tightened her grip on Mr. Stick. She pressed herself into the boxes, hoping that her beige clothing would make her blend right in with the sand and junk around her. 

It was time to play the quiet game. Rey always the best at it, especially when she played with her parents. 

There was a stillness. 

Then the Droid-man snapped his head around! 

Rey retracted her head out of his line of sight as fast as possible. She couldn’t stop her body from jittering at the unexpected movement. Rey focused hard on keeping herself from squirming and kept her heartbeat under control.

The best way to win the quiet game was if you were calm. 

Rey counted to ten in her head then on her fingers just to double-check and then decided that enough time had passed to risk a look. 

Her target was still there, but he wasn’t looking her way anymore. The Droid-man stayed put for a few moments longer. Then he started moving forward, making his way out of the settlement and towards the neverending wasteland of the desert. 

Rey smiled and mentally did a victory dance. 

If there was one advantage Rey had over anyone on this side of the desert planet was that she was a kid, and she was small. No one paid attention to small kids. 

And it seemed like the Droid-man didn’t notice small kids like her either, which worked well in Rey’s favor. 

She followed the Droid-man. Always keeping her distance, always ducking behind dunes when she thought he was about to spot her, always making sure her target was in her line of sight. 

Mr. Stick helped too! As Rey’s best friend who also doubled as her right-hand man, it was part of Mr. Stick’s job description to be her backup and protect her should the need arise. 

And he was great for whacking things. And people on occasion. 

But only if they were trying to steal Rey’s spoils of the day, or being jerks in general. Rey didn’t go around whacking people with Mr. Stick if they didn’t deserve it.

She was a nice little girl if nothing else. 

The Droid-man trekked on and on, over dunes, and past skeleton ships. 

The sun beat down hard against Rey’s back, and even though she was covered from head to toe in her light desert garb, the heat was still painful. She was getting tired, but she wasn’t about to give up now. Rey was going to follow him until he led her right to his treasure! 

There were portions on the line here!

But when the Droid-man’s ship came into view, Rey thought that it surely must have been some sort of mistake. 

She pinched her forearm, stretched her cheeks, moved to use another dune as a hiding spot, and even rubbed her eyes so hard she saw stars dancing around like bits of sand in the wind. But nope, the same sight greeted her. 

The ship was a dumpster-fire, plain and simple. Even worse than the garbage, the Blobfish kept under a tarp by the Outpost. 

Rey could only identify the ship as a Razor Crest because she’d found so many beat-up models that she’d stripped for parts while she was working. They were all so old she never even considered that there would be any left in the whole entire galaxy that could still fly. 

It had to be a joke, or a trick, or something like that.

But no, the Droid-man pressed a button on the side and stepped aside to let the hanger door slowly fall open. Then he walked inside like he owned it. 

This was not good. If the Droid-man was as rich as his armor said he was, then how come he flew around in a pile of flaming trash? 

Maybe Rey was wrong, the metal wasn’t actually that valuable. It could just be like one of those dud-pieces that only looked nice but was completely and worthless and wouldn’t get her any food. 

And then Rey deflated, hunching her shoulders as she exhaled. 

She couldn’t take anything from him if he didn’t have much, to begin with. Rey couldn’t do that to the Droid-man, he never did anything wrong to her. And the idea of snatching some scrap from him suddenly made her feel twisty and guilty and unpleasant on the inside

It was wrong to steal from those who were worse off, and if she did, she’d be just like the Blobfish. Rey never wanted to be like that big old jerk-face. 

Besides, just the sight of his ship alone made her so sad that she wanted to leave out some of her portions for him to make sure that his stomach wouldn’t grumble when he went to bed at night. 

Rey gasped out loud as her energy suddenly returned to her.

“New plan, Mr. Stick! We’re going back out to the Starship Graveyard and find more scrap! Then all of us can have food portions, and Droid-man won’t starve to death!” 

The Droid-man was a traveler, and Rey remembered when she was a traveler herself. Back when she was still with her parents. It wasn’t as rough as it was on Jakku, but Rey knew there were long periods where they didn’t stop the ship to get food, and had to live off of what little they had on them.

The hunger had always felt like what Rey imagined a blaster to the stomach would feel. Empty and painful at the same time. It only got worse when she arrived on the desert planet. 

Rey didn’t want the Droid-man to suffer like that. So she was going to feed him. 

With that resolution set, Rey nodded to her right-hand man, slid down the dune a few feet so that she was completely out of sight of the Razor Crest, and pushed herself off of the ground. 

She had just the spot in mind, just west of the Niima Outpost. Rey had overheard some of the older scavengers talking earlier that morning about a new ship being uncovered during the last sandstorm.

The area was ‘supposedly’ unstable at the moment so the scavengers said that they weren’t planning on heading there until next week, but Rey wasn’t buying it. She knew those scavengers, and they were probably just saying that to keep others away from their new-found treasures. 

Plus Rey was small and light, she could get into places that others couldn’t. Rey did the additions and multiplications in her head and then figured that even if the older kids were right, she’d still manage to reach the ship without dying. Probably. 

She planned on grabbing the navigation parts from the ship, especially if they still worked since she could get a whole lot of portions for those. Also, if there were any weapons or boobytraps, those would be good. And games were fun! She’d like to get some of those! 

Oh! And rainbow-colored lights, a pilot helmet, some big ol’ switches, and buttons, and toggles, and, and, and-

-And there was a trail of glitter in the air. 

Hold on, no-

No, there wasn’t. Wait, yes, there was.

There was a trail, a feeling, an urging. Rey shouldn’t go. Not to that ship. Not yet. There was something there. A flash- THERE! 

Rey blinked her eyes furiously and clutched her head. 

It was a feeling. A feeling, a feeling, a feeling. 

The same bursting feeling that would warn Rey if she was about to step on an unstable foothold while climbing up the side of a massive starship. The same twist of intuition that would tell her to back away from some angry adults that didn’t look angry. The same guiding hand that would lead her to a shelter in a vicious desert storm. 

It was there. It was talking to her without speaking. 

She shouldn’t go to the ship in the west. Rey slowly turned her head, eyes falling once again on the Droid-man’s dumpster-fire. She should go to that one. 

Something was there. Something was on that ship, and she needed to get there. 

The message was loud and clear, and Rey couldn’t contain herself. 

She had a feeling. Not just any feeling but a connection. Something so strong, and so potent that it wrapped around her very being and held her in a big hug that was warm enough to keep her comfy even in the coldest night. 

Rey hadn’t felt a connection like this since- since-

“Mommy and Daddy,” she whispered.

Not since her connection to her parents was severed.

She had to get inside that Razor Crest. She didn’t know how, but she had to. 

It was as if her feet had developed a mind of their own because suddenly she was airborne. Rey leaped over the crest of the dune, tucked her head and twisted her body around so that she could cushion her fall, and roll down the hill. 

She landed at the bottom in a plume of dust, then wasted no time scrambling up to her feet and shooting off towards the ship at a full-blown sprint. The open hatch was right there. All she had to do was get to it. 

Rey was vibrating with energy, and her fingers were trembling. Her hairs were standing on end, and there was a distinct smell of burning wires in the air. Or maybe it was cleaning products. Why would there be cleaning products out here? 

Rey didn’t care, she had to get into the ship. 

Into the ship, into the ship, into the ship.

She had to get into the ship now. 

With a final burst of speed, Rey pushed forward, going faster than she ever thought she could possibly move-

And immediately slammed into the landing gear of the Razor Crest. 

Rey miscalculated her trajectory. She wasn’t able to slow down in time to avoid the collision in her mad dash. 

Ow, ow, ow, ow, owwwwwwww that hurt!

There was a loud ringing in her ears as she pancaked against the sand with a loud “oof.” The wind was knocked right out of her chest, and Mr. Stick flew out of her hands. 

She lay there like a dried up starfish for a few seconds, desperately gasping for air, when the clang-clang-clang sound of footsteps echoed from the ship. Rey raised here head up dizzily before she groaned and let it fall back down. 

The vast sky lay open in front of her. That dull pastel blue that always looked like it was covered in a layer of dust. It was cloudless, dull, flat, and unsettling. 

Rey hated that every time she looked up, all she could think of was the ghost of her parent’s ship. Flying away without her on it.

It was a mistake and an honest one. They didn’t mean to leave without her. 

But even now, she could see it up in the sky. That big silver block of metal with sharp edges, and points, and a black, sideways ‘T’ right smack dab in the middle of it…

Wait, that wasn’t her parents' ship. 

“You alright, kid?” A robotic voice asked. It was the Droid-man. The Droid-man was here. He was kneeling right next to her. Oh, shoot, this was supposed to be a stealth mission, he wasn’t supposed to see her. 

Rey quickly propped her upper body up on her elbows, “I wasn’t scavenging your ship!” She blurted out, because that was the truth, even if it wasn’t initially.

The Droid-man tilted his head to the side, and Rey wished that helmet wasn’t in the way so that she could read his facial expressions. It was harder to tell if he was upset or not. 

“That’s good to know.” He said in a way that Rey just knew that he didn’t believe her, and that was not good. Not good at all. 

“It’s true! I wasn’t!” Rey insisted. 

“Alright,” the Droid-man said, “And I’m guessing that you didn’t follow me all the way from the outpost, either.”

Drat. He knew. And what’s worse, Rey couldn’t tell if he was mad about it. She hoped he wasn’t. But just in case, Rey decided to play innocent.

“Nope!” she lied like a lying liar, “I was, uhhhh, looking for other ships to scavenge! Not yours, of course, because, uhhhhh… Too pretty! It’s too pretty! So I’m looking for another ship! Not yours! And- and- and-” Rey trailed off because, for the life of her, she didn’t know what to say to make sure the Droid-man didn’t get mad at her. 

The Droid-man sighed before sitting back on his heels. Every movement he made caused his cape to shift and swirl around his form. Rey was completely entranced by it, watching the creases disappear and reform like sand ripples in the wind. 

She wondered if she could ever get a cape as awesome looking as that. And a helmet to match too.

“That bruise looks nasty.” the Droid-man observed, his helmet tipping down as if to indicate towards the throbbing bump growing on Rey’s forehead. “If you would let me, I have some medical supplies on my ship.”

Rey immediately scrunched her face together in displeasure, “What do you get out of it?” Because medical help on Jakku always came with a catch. Always. 

The Droid-man was quiet for a moment like he was contemplating the answer. “I tracked a bounty here. I’ve got the chain code, but no puck or fob. You can help me identify the person I’m looking for," he said after what felt like forever. 

Rey shook her head and narrowed her eyes, still suspicious, “"So why ask me, then? Aren't there, a bunch of people way more qualified to help?" she dug deeper. 

“Kids are a lot more observant than adults give them credit for.” The Droid-man simply said, then he stood up. “Listen, I can bring the medical kit out here,” he lifted his hand to gesture at the deserted desert landscape, “or I can treat you inside.” He pointed with two of his fingers at the open hatch of the Razor Crest, “Your choice.” 

A lightbulb went off inside Rey’s head, and her suspicions were allocated to the back of her mind. This was it! This was her chance to get on the ship! It wasn’t the sneaky route she expected to follow, but it would get her to her intended destination all the same. 

She closed her eyes, inhaled, and with renewed giddiness, she noticed the connection was still there. It was faint, but there all the same. 

Rey eagerly nodded her head, “Inside, please.” Then she patted the ground until her fingers wrapped around Mr. Stick. “My friend comes too.” 

The Droid-man shifted his helmet towards the object in her hand, “That is a metal pipe.” he stated flatly. 

“His name is Mr. Stick,” Rey said, feeling a little offended at the Droid-man’s dismissal of her right-hand man. 

The Droid-man didn’t move for a few beats and then, “Alright, Mr. Stick can come too. Can you stand?” he asked.

“Uhhhhhhhhh, maybe. Probably. Wait, let me do it myself! Yup! See, I can stand just fine.” Rey said as her legs wobbled slightly underneath her. She waited a few seconds to allow herself to stabilize, and then she gave the Droid-man a thumbs up, “I can stand super duper well. No help needed.”

The Droid-man slowly nodded, and then turned “Good. Come on.” He gestured to follow him. 

Rey didn’t need much more prompting because she quickly fell in line and trotted up the ramp after the Droid-man, and crossed the threshold into the ship. 


	2. The Adventures of a Small Bean and a Green Bean

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Din recognizes a traumatized kid when he sees one, and The Child makes a new friend.

The second she stepped inside the ship, Rey got distracted. 

She had seen Razor Crests before, lots of them. But they had always been in various states of scrap. Most of them had been raided and stripped by other scavengers that managed to reach the ships before her, taking all of the good goodies before she could ever get to them. 

But Rey had never actually been inside a fully functioning Razor Crest that still had all of its parts intact, and it was absolutely fascinating. 

There were so many colorful buttons! Some of the lights blinked, and others buzzed, and some just twinkled above. All of the tubes, panels, and wires were in their places and looked well maintained. 

Rey’s fingers twitched, but she tucked Mr. Stick under her arm and lifted her hands up in front of her face so that she could scold them quietly. 

Bad sticky fingers. Now was not the time. 

Part of her wanted to just rip the place to salvageable shreds. There were so many parts, so many pieces out in the open that she could scavenge. So many objects in her vicinity that could get her enough portions to last her a whole week!

Just thinking of all of the yum yums she could have made her stomach rumble. 

But she was a guest, and guests don’t try to scavenge their host’s ship. It wasn’t polite. Besides, her head was starting to really hurt, and the Droid-man said that he could help with that. 

Besides, she couldn’t be thinking about scavenging now; she made it into the ship!

But wait, now what? 

The connection buzzed. She was in the right place, so what was she supposed to do?

Rey looked to the Droid-man for some sort of guidance. 

He was down the other end of the ship, rummaging around in several open compartments. Rey could hear all of the clinkity-clankity rattles from all of the different things and objects that he pushed aside as he looked for something. 

The Droid-man did not say anything, but he didn’t need to. For once, his body language was clear. The tight movements, and the increasingly forceful searching. Rey knew the Droid-man was getting frustrated, and when an adult got frustrated they were one tiny little push away from getting mad. 

Mad adults were bad news. Very bad news. 

Rey started to play the quiet game again. The first rule of the game was that it began whenever a grownup got upset or angry. Rey wasn’t sure if the Droid-man had crossed that line yet, but she didn’t want to risk it. 

He suddenly straightened up, turned and headed towards Rey. She instinctively pressed herself back against the wall, and held Mr. Stick tight to her chest, almost cutting her shoulder on one of his jagged edges. Her eyes flickered to the open hatch. 

The Droid-man paused in his path when he reached her.

In her peripheral vision, the Droid-man took a step away from her and knelt down, placing his forearm across his knee to support his upper body. Rey refused to make eye contact. But she did notice the way that the warm lights above them made his armor gleam in an almost golden-green color.

Like that scrap of ribbon that she had found a while back at one of the stalls in the Outpost market. It was shiny, and pretty, and she used it to tie her hair up on special occasions, or just whenever she was feeling fancy, or felt like she needed a pick-me-up. 

“Seems like the med-kit was misplaced. I’m going to go see if it’s in the cockpit.” The Droid-man explained keeping his voice low and calm. “Can you wait here while I go check?” 

Rey kept her mouth shut. She needed to win the quiet game and protect her title as the reigning champion, she wasn’t going to talk. But a bit of the tension in her shoulders melted; it didn’t look like he was as mad as she thought he was. So Rey allowed herself to nod her head in acknowledgement. 

The Droid-man returned the nod, “Good. I’ll be back-” 

Rey suddenly jerked her head back. In her mind, the distant voices of her parents melded together with the robotic undertones of the armored man in front of her.

That’s what they all said. 

The Droid-man fell silent, then slowly got up. Moving at a snail’s pace so that Rey could see each and every one of his moments, the Droid-man grabbed hold of the ladder began to climb. 

He looked over at her one last time, “Stay here. Ok?” he said. And then he was gone. 

The moment the Droid-man disappeared out of sight, Rey scrambled over to the ladder so that she could see where he went. The trap door was open, and she could see a bit of the upper parts of the ship. But no matter what angle she stood at, she couldn’t see the Droid-man. 

She stared, unsure if she should follow the Droid-man to keep him in her sights, or if she should actually do as she was told and stay put.

He said he would be back. 

They said that too.

After a moment of deliberation she quietly grabbed hold of the nearest ladder rung and stood beside it. She was on his ship. Even if he left her, he wouldn’t leave the ship. Adults never abandon their ships if it still worked, that was a fact. And judging by the constant hum of machinery echoing through the repurposed cargo hold, this Razor Crest could still fly. 

The Droid-man won’t leave the ship, and if Rey stayed on the ship he won’t leave her. Simple as that.

So she will wait. 

That didn’t mean she had to like it, however. 

Waiting was boring. 

And her head was beginning to really throb. It had started out as a sharp, pokey kind of pain. Like those times she accidentally stabbed herself on a sharp piece of metal during one of her scavenging hunts. But now it was more like a dull burning sensation, as if she had placed her forehead on a hot plate and was slowly increasing the temperature. 

It was uncomfortable and she wanted it to stop. 

Rey decided that the quiet game was over now. The Droid-man wasn’t around, and if he wasn’t around he couldn’t get mad at her. So she started making clicking noises by snapping her tongue against the roof of her mouth, just to keep her mind off of her growing headache. She remembered hearing somewhere that if you didn’t think about pain, then it would go away. 

She blew a raspberry and swung Mr. Stick around like a staff, and pretended that she was a valiant warrior fighting against a hoard of shadow monsters that lived deep in the depths of ghost ships.

The older Scavenger kids told her stories about them. The shadow monsters who liked to feast on annoying little kids who kept trying to tag along with the big kids even when they’ve been told to go away like a million times already. They told her how the monsters drag their unsuspecting victims down, down, down, into chasms that led all the way to the planet’s core.

How the monsters hid in the cracks and shadows that people couldn’t see. Watching. Waiting. How they would wait until the frigid night to catch their prey when no one would notice. 

Of course, Rey wasn’t scared of them. She was too big to be scared. 

Plus, those scavengers didn’t even know what they were talking about. Rey should know because when she managed to corner one of those kids who was spreading around those stories, he said that the best way to keep the shadow monsters from taking interest in her was to leave out three whole prepared portions outside her hidey-hole by the Northern dunes. That way the monsters would be more interested in the portions rather than her. 

It was a lot of food to give up, but Rey thought that on the off chance that there actually were shadow monsters stalking her then it would be better to be prepared. She’d rather not, you know, get digested if she could help it. 

But when Rey left out her offerings, she woke up the next morning to find that only one of the food portions had a big ol’ bite in it, and the rest was untouched. It looked like the monster had been by but he didn’t like her food. 

Maybe it was because of the dead Skittermice she had shoved into each of the portions. Rey figured that if shadow monsters liked the taste of flesh then they’d appreciate some dead rodents as a treat.

Oddly enough, that same scavenger who told her about this particular strategy for dealing with shadow monsters was sick for days after that. He even refused to ever talk to her again, and kept trying to find excuses to leave whenever they were in the same place. 

Weird, huh? 

Rey didn’t bother leaving out any more portions after that failed experiment, and decided to take her chances with the shadow monsters directly. Nothing remotely resembling a shadow monster ever attacked her, and the fact that she was still alive and kicking was the ultimate proof that a shadow monster never ate her either. 

Besides, she had Mr. Stick with her. He’d warn her if a monster was creeping up on her. 

With a confident smile, Rey twirled Mr. Stick in the air like a sword, causing happy little swoosh noises when the metal pipe swung through the air. Rey imagined it was a shadow monster’s scream of defeat. 

She jabbed to the right! To the left! A block! A Swipe there! Another block there! Another hi- 

_ CLINK _

Rey nearly jumped out of her own skin.

She did not hit anything. That wasn’t the sound of Mr. Stick getting hit against the paneling of the ship. That noise didn’t come from above either where the Droid-man was. The sound came from the cargo hold. Somewhere in the room with her.

_ CLANK _

She pressed herself against the ladder as she held up Mr. Stick to swing down on anyone or anything that approached her. 

Silence. Nothing moved. Rey didn’t dare breath. 

Paranoia crawled up her spine to clench at her heart. Shadow monsters weren’t real, right? Right?

_ CLONK _

Rey shifted her weight from her left foot to her right foot and then back to the left, like she was on a mini seesaw. She scanned the area, eyes darting from one corner of the cargo hold of the ship to the other. Nothing seemed out of place. Nothing had moved. So what was making that noise?

Then suddenly, there was a soft, bell chime giggle. Rey’s brain stalled for a moment. What?

Behind her, Rey heard something slide. It was the sound of a compartment door opening. She whirled around, her defense up and her best friend ready, then she froze. Her fingers went lax, one by one, and Mr. Stick clattered to the floor. 

Rey let a noise that was a cross between a gasp and a squeal pass her lips. The universe sang, it was throwing rainbow glitter everywhere, shooting warm and fuzzies straight into her heart, and if Rey focused hard enough she could hear melodious music floating through the air like a cloud of kicked-up sand.

This was it. This was where the connection led to. Right here. Right now.

Peeking out from a secret compartment that had up until that moment escaped Rey’s notice, was a little green creature pair of large, fuzzy, pointed ears. It blinked its bleary puppy-dog brown eyes, and cooed at Rey. 

“Aaaaawwww,” Rey cooed back, her voice increasing by an octave or two. “You’re so cute!” she squealed and rushed over to get a better look at the itty bitty baby.

Rey stopped short of the compartment and rose up on her tiptoes so that she could peek in. Her eyes widened as she took in the sight of the creature. He was the cutest, most adorablest little baby she’d ever seen on this side of Jakku.

He was the  _ only _ baby she’d ever seen on this side of Jakku for that matter. Adults didn’t usually bring their kid into the Blobfish’s territory, and Rey was the youngest person living outside of the permanent settlements. There really weren’t any kids around that were her age, and to find a sentient creature that was actually younger than her was an absolute novelty. 

And he was so helpless-looking too. All bundled up and snug in a brown cloak like a burrito, reaching out for her with his little clawed hands. 

Rey raised her whole arm up and over the ledge and stuck it in front of the baby. He grabbed hold of her index finger and let out a happy little trill. Rey felt like she had been chosen by a divine power. 

“I would die for you,” she whispered in awe, making the baby giggle. Rey grinned so hard her face hurt. “I’m gonna be your big sister now,” she decided. The baby squealed in agreement, and Rey squealed back. 

She wasn’t going to treat him like all of those jerk-faced older scavenger kids treated her. She wouldn’t trash his forts, or steal his best friend, or sabotage his scavenging trips, or talk down to him like he was a stupid little worm. 

No, Rey was going to protect him! She was going to make sure that he would get plenty of portions, plenty of things to drink, that no one bullied him, and no one tried to hurt him. 

They could go sand sledding in the dunes! And make little dolls out of wires and plastic scrapes so that they could play house! Play tag and hid-and-seek in the Starship Graveyard when there weren’t too many scavengers around! They could go inside abandoned ships and press all of the rainbow buttons and pull all the levers and pretend that they were flying away on an epic space adventure! 

Oh! Oh! Oh! And Rey was definitely going to have to show him the best places to find scrap, and since he was little like her-

Rey felt a stone drop in her stomach, and suddenly it was difficult to breath. Her heart was beating. It was beating faster, and faster, faster, faster faster fasterfasterfaster-

He was little, like her. He was a baby. Adults didn’t bring babies out here. Sometimes kids, but never babies. And those kids who were brought to this side of the planet always stayed. The parents never did.

They never did.

No.

Unacceptable.

The baby was not going to be left behind. 

Rey didn’t even want to think of what the Blobfish would do if he got a hold of him. He would send her little brother off to the most dangerous sites, make the baby crawl through live wires, and leave him to the mercy of the desert because if he could gather scrape then he could take care of himself. 

That can’t happen. She won’t let it.

The baby warbled and tilted his head. As if sensing Rey’s sudden surge of terror, he grabbed hold of Rey’s finger with his other hand and sent a tiny pulse of comfort through the air. Through the invisible glitter. 

Somehow, Rey could feel herself calming down. It didn’t quite feel like her heart was trying to tear its way out of her chest anymore, and the fearful rush of adrenaline was abading. But her hands were shaking. Both of them. They were shaking so much, why won’t they stop?

Stop.

Stop it.

Stop shaking.   
Rey balled her free hand into a fist, and let that arm rest at her side. She did the same with her other hand after carefully extracting it away from her new found baby brother. 

The little green baby kept sending pulses of warmth and reassurance, even as she stepped back. By the time Rey crouched down to pick up Mr. Stick and apologize for dropping him, Rey’s hands stopped trembling completely. 

Out of her fear, determination rose. Rey put herself between the compartment that held her brother, and the ladder that led up to the cockpit. She lowered herself into a fighting stance she’d seen some of the adults take. Feet shoulder length apart, a slight bend in the knees, and Mr. Stick held out in front of her like a sword. 

She took a deep breath. She didn’t care if the Droid-man was going to be mad, there was too much at stake now. Besides, she could use that to their advantage. After all if the Droid-man was too busy being mad at her then he would forget to leave the baby.

Rey tightened her grip until her knuckles went white. 

The baby was not leaving this ship. Not if Rey could help it. 

The moment she saw a pair of boots lower themselves down through the trapdoor, Rey struck. With a loud war-cry, she swung Mr. Stick as hard as she could, but the hit never landed. 

The Droid-man moved like a ghost. One minute he was only just beginning to climb down the ladder and then the next he was behind her, one hand holding Rey’s wrist down uncomfortably tight, and the other holding Mr. Stick out of her reach. Not too far away however since he was holding a medkit under the same arm. 

“Hey, hey, calm down,” The Droid-man warned, a steel edge seeping into his words “This isn’t a fight you want to start, kid.” 

Rey renewed her struggle with a fervor. “Yes I do!” she yelled as she tried and failed to swipe Mr. Stick away from the Droid-man, “You can’t leave him! That’s banned! I made it illegal! He has to stay on the ship!” 

The Droid-man’s grip on her wrist lessened, but then he put Mr. Stick on a high shelf that Rey had no hope of reaching. She snarled angrily, pulling her lips back to show off her teeth in an attempt to make herself as intimidating as possible. The Droid-man was not having it. 

“Explain.” He demanded.

That was anger in his voice. The Droid-man was mad. Rey expected this, but every fiber of her being was screaming for her to run and hide. 

She was teetering on hysteria, and it all came out as one giant word-vomit. 

“He’s too small and he’ll get eaten alive by the other scavengers and by actual, and the Blobfish won’t care because he never cares about anyone, and there won’t be enough portions so he’ll go hungry, and if he gets hurt or sick there isn’t anyone I can take him too, and he could get trapped in a sandstorm or get caught in a fight with a Teedo or get knocked unconscious by broken scrap or fall into a sinkhole and he’s going to  _ miss you so much, that I-”  _ Rey was cut off when a loud, ugly sob rattled her frame. 

With one last sharp tug, Rey wrenched her arm away from the Droid-man. Her hands shot to her mouth and she tilted her head up as quickly as she could to keep the tears from falling. Pressure built up in her chest, and a cloudy film of moisture covered her eyes. Crying was not allowed. She was a big girl, and big girls don’t cry. She couldn’t show any weakness, especially not now. 

A gentle weight materialized on her trembling shoulder accompanied by gentle words. She heard the Droid-man say, “You are allowed to cry, you know. It’ll make you feel better in the long run. It’s worse if you keep it all bottled up inside.” 

But it wasn’t ok. It never was. 

“You can’t leave him,” Rey’s voice cracked, “He’s just a baby.” 

“I’m not leaving him.” 

“Promise?” 

“I promise.” 

Just like that, any fight Rey had in her melted away. She did not cry. She didn’t. But her legs turned to jelly and lost the strength to hold up her own weight. She sank to the floor, hugged her knees to her chest, and buried her face. Her breathing was irregular, her face turned red, and her throat burned like acid, but her cheeks remained dry.

Rey. Did. Not. Cry. 

It took everything she had to make sure that she didn’t. 

But in Rey’s catatonic haze, she could feel a small, three-fingered hand rub circles on her calf. She could hear a soft and soothing lullaby, sung in a beautiful language that she couldn’t understand. 

And that made her feel just a tiny bit better. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was finished later than I anticipated, but at least the wait wasn’t too long. Here’s to hoping chapter 3 will be up sooner, although I am traveling this month and the Wifi connection is not ideal where I am. That being said, I tried my best to correct all of the grammar mistakes but I’m not confident I caught all of them so if you see any then my bad. 
> 
> As energetic and tenacious as Kid!Rey is, she is still a very traumatized seven year old who doesn’t trust easily and is hyper-vigilant about any potential threats against her. Din isn’t trying to scare Rey at all and in fact he is going out of his way to try and make himself as non-threatening as possible. Rey is a bit of an unreliable narrator, however, because she barely trusts Din at all and meeting Baby Yoda unearthed some recent memories that she has been trying to suppress.   
> Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter!  
> Until next time!  
> ~Lost-In-The-Muse


	3. The Adventures of a Concerned Parent

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Din asks some questions, and two kids have a slumber party.

The Razor Crest was peaceful. 

A quiet only broken by the soft hum of the artificial lights and the muffled howl of the wind outside the grounded starship. 

Rey sat on the ledge of the open smuggler’s compartment, leaning against the cool metal wall with one leg propped up on the elevated flooring while the other dangled in the air. She swung that leg and tapped it lightly against the metal plating underneath to the beat of a nursery rhyme that played on repeat in her head. 

On her left was her trusty side-kick Mr. Stick, safely returned to Rey after he had to stay in time-out for a little while on one of the high shelves. Rey had made sure that he was nice and cozy, all bundled up in a small piece of loose fabric that she had dug up out of one of her pockets. 

And in front of Rey was the adorable little green baby. Her newest friend and brother. 

He sat relaxed at the other end of the nook with his large puppy-dog eyes closed. With every breath he took, the glitter that hung in air like a layer of dust swirled and moved.

It was fascinating to watch. Rey had never seen anyone else manipulate the glitter like that. She had tried before, in fit of curiosity when she was a child, just to see if she could. But Rey could never do it as well consciously as she could unconsciously. Anything that did come out of her trying to purposefully manipulate the glitter wasn’t anywhere near as precise as her little brother could manage. 

But Rey could see, hear, feel, taste, even smell the glitter that was the language of the Universe. And it was beautiful. Just experiencing the way the glitter responded to the little baby felt magical. 

The sound of heavy footsteps startled Rey out of her thoughts, causing her to nearly jump right out of the nook. The baby reacted far more calmly as he opened his eyes and cooed happily. 

It was the Droid-man. Fully armored and helmet still on, he stood a few feet away holding two mugs in his gloved hands. 

“How’s your head?” He asked Rey, tapping a finger to his own head to illustrate his question. 

Rey twisted herself around so that both of her legs were dangling off of the edge of the platform. Mirroring the Droid-man, She lightly touched the small bacta-patch that the Droid-man had applied to her forehead earlier. 

“It’s good. Doesn’t hurt anymore when I touch it, and there’s no headache anymore.”

“Good,” the Droid-man replied.

“Oh, oh, oh! I need to pay you back for the medicine stuffs,” Rey exclaimed, eager to repay her debt. 

The Droid-man gently shook his head before she could say anything more. “Don’t worry about. We can discuss it later.” 

He took a step forward, body language open and friendly, and he passed one mug into the little green baby’s awaiting hands. Then he turned and held out the other mug for Rey, which she tentatively took after a moment’s hesitation.

Rey stared down at the mug she held in her cupped hands. 

There was a strange smelling liquid inside. It looked far too much like the dirtified sand-water in the Outpost’s water troughs left out for the animals. Out of an abundance of caution, Rey did a sniff test, and then flicked the side of the mug until it made a nice clean  _ Ding! _ noise as the liquid splashed around. 

“It’s tea,” The Droid-man explained as Rey inspected the drink. When all she did was stare at him blankly in response, he asked, “Have you ever had it before?”

Rey scrunched her nose and said “It looks like there’s dirt in it,” which was an answer in and of itself. 

That earned her a dry chuckle from the Droid-man.

“It’s basically leaf juice, sweetened with a bit of sugar. It’s usually served hot but given the weather, I let it cool down.” Then he tipped his helmet towards the baby, “It’s his favorite blend. I thought you might like to try it.”

The little green baby in question wasn’t paying attention to the conversation at all. He was too busy wolfing the tea down like he had spent an entire day out in the desert without anything to drink. 

But if the baby’s eagerness to drink the weird liquid was anything, it was enough reassurance to Rey that this ‘tea’ probably wasn’t going to make her sick despite its questionable appearance. 

Very slowly, very cautiously, Rey took a sip. 

Exclamation points beamed in Rey’s mind as she straightened her posture and tipped the mug back so that she could take a bigger gulp.

Tea tasted amazing! 

Water was already an amazing treat on a desert planet, but somehow the leaf-juice made it better! 

It was so cold, so sweet, and so refreshing that Rey had to actively remind herself not to be greedy. 

She stopped after she drank about half of the tea, wiped the corner of her mouth with the collar of her shirt, and then offered it back to the Droid-man. He seemed slightly taken aback by her action.

“Take it,” Rey insisted, holding it out to him. 

There was a pause, “You don’t like it?” 

Rey shook her head furiously, “No, I do! The tea is great! But you should have some too, so I’m sharing.” 

The Droid-man raised his gloved hand and tried to gently push the mug back towards Rey, but she refused to budge. 

“It’s alright,” He said softly, “I’ve already had some. This is for you.” 

Rey narrowed her eyes. 

She couldn’t quite tell if he was lying or not. He could have been telling the truth, but she also knew that some adults do this thing where they give kids their food or drink, but then they don’t have anything for themselves and they don’t want the kid to know. In Rey’s experience, it was only the nice adults who did that, and in the half day that Rey had known the Droid-man, she suspected that he was one of them. 

The problem was, if an adult did that too much, they might get really hungry or thirsty to the point where it wasn’t healthy. They could get really sick. Rey didn’t want that to happen to the Droid-man. 

So Rey lifted her chin up determinedly, and she said “You need to drink it. I made it a rule.” All while trying to convey just how serious she was about this. 

The Droid-man stared at Rey for a moment, and then he nodded and quietly accepted the mug. He shifted and turned his head away so that Rey could only see the back of his metal helmet. Then he lifted the helmet ever so slightly and drank the tea. 

Rey grinned, she was very pleased. 

When the Droid-man finished his half of the tea, he readjusted his helmet, and showed Rey the empty inside of the mug to confirm with her that he drank all of it. Then he collected the little green baby’s mug and brought them over to a little sink in the corner of the ship where he placed them down to clean later. 

Rey watched his movements as he returned and took a seat on a storage crate near the compartment she and the baby were sitting in. 

“Do you have a name?” The Droid-man asked.

Rey furrowed her eyebrows in a moment of confusion, but then felt the tips of her ears start to burn as an embarrassed look crossed her face. She forgot to introduce herself! How could she forget!

“My name is Rey!” She replied in a hurry to fix her mistake, “I’m seven years old, and I’m a scavenger!” 

“It’s nice to meet you, Rey,” the Droid-man said. Rey could practically hear a smile in his words, so she tentatively returned the smile.

“How long have you been a scavenger?” 

“Ummmm… a year I think. Yeah, a year, and I’m very good at it! I can find all the good scrap, and I can fit in small places where the adults can’t go so I can get the good stuff before the older scavengers can. That means I’m useful!” 

“You must be very skilled.” The Droid-man observed with a hint of amusement in his voice. “What’s the most interesting thing you’ve ever found?” 

“Oooh, a lot of things! I really like finding light bulbs because usually when a ship crashes the lights get all crunched up and broken, so finding a light bulb that isn’t broken is super rare. And then if I’m really lucky I’ll find a colorful one! Like last week! I found a purple light bulb that still worked, and I decided to keep it instead of turning it in for portions, so now I have it hanging in my fort! But I think Mr. Stick is my favorite, I found him the first time I went to scavenge a ship all by myself and now he’s my best friend!”

“He seems to be a very helpful companion.”

Rey nodded sagely, “He protects me, and I protect him. It’s a simbi- symmo- symbat-”

“Symbiotic?” The Droid-man offered, after Rey spent one too many moments stumbling over the word.

“Symbiotic!” Rey cheered, “it’s a symbiotic relationship!” 

“That’s good. It’s always important to have people you can turn to in tough situations.” The Droid-man paused, “Is there anyone other than Mr. Stick that protects you? Or who you protect?” 

“Um, um, um… Oh! I have some pet crickets that live by one of my hidey-holes! All they do is sing at night, and sometimes make the glitter do funny little ‘blaps’ like bubbles popping, but they don’t really do much else. I do try to leave some food out for them but I haven’t really figured out what crickets eat. I just give them left over portions whenever I have some.” Rey tried to search her brain, thinking of anyone else who she protected, or who protected her. She came up with nothing. “And, um. I guess that’s it. It’s just me, Mr. Stick, and the crickets.” 

“I see. Do you spend a lot of your time scavenging?” 

“It’s pretty much all I do, cause I have to get as much scrap as I can so I can exchange them for food at the Outpost. It’s what everyone does around here.”

“Do you ever go inside any of the big Star Cruisers?” 

“Uh huh! All the time! But for those I usually tag along with one of the bigger scavenger groups since it’s easy to get lost in the wreckage. I tried going into one once by myself and it was really scary,” Rey let her voice lower down into a whisper, “Especially when there are people still sleeping in the rooms who don’t wake up even when the ceiling collapses.”

“That does sound scary. I imagine it was also pretty scary to see the ships in the air too.”

Rey tilted her head to the side, and gave the Droid-man a sideways look. She supposed he was right, but the ships had always been planet-bound. She had never seen them in the air before, they were so big she couldn’t even imagine them ever lifting off of the ground even though she knew that they had to have been able to fly in the first place in order to crash planet-side. 

“I guess so,” Rey answered with a casual shrug, “but they’re too broken to work. All they’re good for is scrap.” 

The Droid-man was quiet and still as he observed her. And then he said “You weren’t on the planet during the Battle of Jakku” As if it were a statement. Rey didn’t know why the Droid-man needed to know that. Or how that information could be important. 

“That was aaaages ago! Of course not, silly!” 

“It was only four years ago.”

“Yeah, and I’m seven. That’s more than half my lifetime ago.”

“So when did you arrive on Jakku?” 

“Last year.” 

“And that’s when you became a scavenger, right?” 

“Yup!”

“Alright, what were you doing before then?”

“Flying on spaceships with Mommy and Daddy! I always got to help navigate, that’s a very important job. And it was so cool seeing the big nebulas! Did you know that stars explode when they die and it’s called a supernova? And the supernovas are what creates nebulas? And new stars are born in those nebulas, which is so cool!”

“I take it you really like space travel, then.” 

“Yeah! It was a lot of fun even if ‘troopers were always attacking-” Rey cut herself off. There was a lull in the conversation. 

Rey didn’t want to say anything, she’d already said too much. She knew what the next question was going to be. He was going to ask where her parents are, why they aren’t with her, and why she was alone. Then Rey was going to have to explain that she didn’t know. She didn’t have the answers to any of those questions.

Not a single one. 

She braced herself. Preparing for the inevitable. 

And then, “What’s your favorite nebula?” 

Rey blinked in surprise. “Huh?” 

The Droid-man leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms over his chest, “I like the purple ones, where you can clearly see the dust and gas from the ship.” He tipped his head towards the baby, “And I know the little one likes the nebulas shaped like butterflies. Always climbs over the controls whenever we pass one to get a look.”

The little green baby cooed in agreement. 

“So what kind of nebulas do you like?” 

“Oh! Um! I like the red ones then!” Rey said, slightly delayed while she fidgeted with her fingers “And also the ones that look like eyes. I saw one once that looked just like a Tooka’s eye, and I thought it was really neat.!”

It didn’t take much for Rey to start going on and on about all the cool nebulas she had seen while she was still traveling the galaxy with her parents. She had plenty of material to draw on, and she even recounted a whole bunch of lessons her mother gave her on how to read star charts and how to classify different planets and stars. 

She talked for a long while. Way longer than she expected. Only pausing every so often to hear a question the Droid-man had every so often about things like the life cycle of stars, black holes, and galaxy rotation. It was all things the Droid-man probably already knew about, since he was a space traveler himself. 

But it felt nice to be able to just ramble on and on about these topics in front of an audience. Rey hadn’t been able to do something like this in a long time. 

Rey didn’t know how much time had passed once she started discussing space with the Droid-man, but by the time her voice went raw and her eyes began to droop, he got up off of the crate and stretched. 

“It’s getting late, is there anyone expecting you home?” 

Rey had to think about his question for a moment. She supposed the Blobfish would notice if she hadn’t checked in with him today, and he was definitely going to hound on her for not meeting her daily quota, the next time he saw her. But that wasn’t anything new. If the Blobfish didn’t see Rey for the rest of the day, he wouldn’t care and Rey wouldn’t care. 

“No, it’s just me and Mr. Stick, and since Mr. Stick is with me, there’s no one waiting for us at our fort.” Rey finally answered, and kept it at that.

But then she realized that the Droid-man might be asking that question because he wanted her to leave. She was the one, after all, who bonked her head on the ship hard enough that the Droid-man had to get medical supplies, and then stayed on the ship far longer than she should have. Maybe Rey had overstayed her welcome, and the Droid-man was trying to politely ask her to leave? 

“I can go now,” Rey said as she leaned back and picked up Mr. Stick, who was still wrapped up in his little make-shift blanket, “My fort isn’t far from here, it won’t take long for me to get back, and-”

Rey’s words were cut off by a distressed warble. She looked down to find the baby, her little brother, inching towards her with the biggest, saddest eyes she had ever seen on a living creature.

“Awwwww,” she cooed, absolutely melting as she reached over to pat her little brother on the head. Rey wished she didn’t have to go, she really did. She wanted to stay on the Razor Crest longer. The Droid-man was a very nice host, and whenever Rey was around the baby, the Universe sang in her ears, telling her that she was right where she belonged. But she wasn’t going to stay if they didn’t want her here. 

But then as if he read Rey’s thoughts, the Droid-man said, “You don’t have to leave if you don’t want to. We have room for you here to stay overnight.”

Rey perked up, but remained slightly skeptical. “Really?” 

The Droid-man nodded, the baby squealed in joy, and Rey beamed. An idea suddenly materialized in her mind. 

Rey pushed herself deeper into the nook, rearranged herself so that she was sitting cross legged on the platform, and picked up her little brother and held him to her chest. 

“Does this mean we could have a sleepover? I’ve never had a sleepover before!” 

“I don’t see why not,”.

Rey and the little green baby cheered. Then with the help of the Droid-man, they quickly got to work transforming the smuggler’s compartment into a nice and comfy pillow fort. 

With a bit of searching, the Droid-man managed to track down several bundles of blankets and pillows of all different sizes, mismatched patterns, and textures. All of which Rey and the baby were very eager to use to create their masterpiece. 

All three of them worked together to create a cozy little wonderland featuring a nest of fuzzy blankets to sleep on, reinforced walls with soft pillows, and a large sheet that hung above their heads that act as a tent. The Droid-man even managed to find a string of colorful lights, much to Rey’s utter delight, that they could use to decorate the inside of their pillow fort and use as a nightlight. 

As the evening dragged, Rey and the baby settled into their cozy little fort, nestling into the soft blankets like they were a pair of Skittermice settling into their burrows. The Droid-man wasn’t that far off, watching over them from the other side of the Razor Crest cargo hold where he sat cleaning some of his weapons before he himself settled down to sleep for the night.

Rey tried her best to stay awake as long as she could, spearheading a shadow-puppet show to keep her brother entertained, and amusing him with fun little stories she would make up on the spot about cute little creatures and happy little raindrops and talking rainbows. 

But soon enough, Rey’s voice grew hoarse and she began having difficulties keeping her eyes open. She was half way through telling a story about a litter of tooka siblings on a quest to find the most delicious milk in the galaxy before she realized that the baby was already sound asleep. 

Rey let her voice trail off as she zoned out for a moment, half asleep and half not. Exhaustion weighed Rey down, and she burrowed further into the blankets. 

But before she could properly settle in for the night, Rey poked her head out of the pillow fort and said, “Thank you, Mr. Droid-man, Sir.”

Silence descended on the Razer Crest. And then came a very befuddled, “I am not a droid.” 

“Mr. Man, Sir.” Rey amended with a sleepy yawn to punctuate her words. The Droid-man was quiet, so Rey figured that meant he didn’t mind her calling him that. 

“Goodnight,” she called out and finally closed her eyes. 

And Rey couldn’t be sure, but as she faded into a blissful slumber, she thought she heard the Droid-man respond. 

“Goodnight, little ones.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Years everyone, here’s to a better 2021.   
>  I’m picking this story back up due to popular demand, and also the new season of the Mandalorian gave me the inspiration I needed to actually create a solid plot for this story that I didn’t have when I first started. It is wild that the last time I worked on this fic was when I was in Ukraine right before lockdowns. It was a whole different world. But I am actually really excited to be working on this fic again because I have so many ideas for future chapters!  
>  I’ll be posting chapters as I finish them, so there won’t be a strict schedule. Thank you all for reading! Your support means so much!  
>  Until Next Time!  
>  Lost-In-The-Muse


	4. The Adventures of a Force-Sensitive Duo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the Force works in mysterious ways, and introspection is the name of the game.

Rey woke up before the sun broke over the horizon. True she couldn’t see the sun, but that didn’t mean her internal alarm clock was going to let her sleep in. 

Sometimes there were moments when she woke up in the morning all groggy and confused. With sleep still fogging up her mind, she would struggle to register her surroundings.

Today was not one of those days.

The moment she came to consciousness, Rey was hyper aware of the fact that she was not in any of her desert hidey-holes scattered around within walking distance of Niima Outpost, nor was she in her big abandoned AT-AT that served as her general base of operations. 

Rey blinked her bleary eyes before wriggling around in her makeshift bed so that she was laying on her back, staring up at the thin sheet that made up the roof of the pillow fort. The fairy lights were off, she noticed. The Droid-man must have turned them off at some point in the night, or they ran out of battery. 

A beat passed, and Rey felt a movement a few paces away. She heard a tiny little yawn to her right, and a bright happy burst of colorful swirls flitted across her vision. 

Apparently, the baby was also an early riser. 

Rey quickly pushed herself up so that she was sitting crisscross applesauce just as her little brother lifted his head and let out an adorable coo. 

Rey cooed back, giggled, and then cheerfully said, “Good morning to you too!” 

Then she poked her head out of the compartment with a ‘Good morning, Mr. Man, Sir!’ ready on the tip of her tongue. But when she glanced around the main living space of the Razor Crest, the Droid-man was nowhere to be seen. 

With the exception of the baby and Rey herself, the area was devoid of life. 

“Huh,” Rey said with a furrow of her brows, and then ducked her head back into the pillow fort “Did ya see where Mr. Man, Sir went?”

The baby blinked and adopted a vaguely confused look on his face. But he didn’t seem too concerned about the Droid-man’s absence, so Rey didn’t think she needed to get too worried. 

She hummed to herself and nodded sagely. “You’re right, he’s probably busy somewhere. Maybe out getting breakfast or something.” 

But then a realization hit that left Rey feeling slightly frantic. “Wait, Mr. Man, Sir fed us yesterday so now I gotta go out and get food for us today or else it won’t be a fair trade. Did he leave to get the morning scrap already? I need to go too! I’ll go grab my boots and then I’m gonna try and catch up with-”

Rey was interrupted before she could hop out of the smuggler’s compartment by an odd buzzing in her ear and a shimmer on the edge of her peripheral vision. She fell silent and glanced around wildly. Then she felt a tug on her wrist and she zeroed in on it. 

There was a soft blue mass of what Rey could only describe as energy wrapped around her hand like a lazily wound up cloth. Except it wasn’t really like a cloth, more like a rope or a thick woven thread, wispy and light, that hung loosely from her limb. 

Rey's eyes trailed up the length of the thread, tracing it back to its origin. She gasped.

Blue spider-web like tendrils floated up from the little baby’s very essence. As if moved by an invisible hand, the tendrils wove together, wrapping and overlapping themselves until it resembled something akin to a big fluffy energy blanket. 

The glowing blanket fluttered above the two, creating a small canopy over them and the little nook gained a soft blue tint as the artificial light of the ship filtered through its ethereal fibers. 

“Woah,” Rey breathed as she had a moment to marvel at the display. Her fingers twitched, wanting to reach out and touch the woven threads of glitter above her, but Rey worried that she might unravel the whole thing by doing so. So she stayed her hand. 

Then, very slowly, the baby exhaled and the blanket floated down onto Rey’s shoulders as lightly and gently as a falling feather. 

Emotions and feelings rushed out of the little green baby, bounced around concentrated points of rainbow glitter in the air before soaking into the blanket and trickling down to Rey’s very heart. 

_ Comfort. Safety. Warmth _ . 

A constant and steady pattern.  _ Comfort. Safety. Warmth _ . Rey felt an overwhelming sense of calm.

It was nice. A moment of peace. A moment to be. 

The glitter bloomed like a desert lily. It curled around them, changing shape, changing color, molding itself into images, sounds, and sensations.

Rey leaned forward as she watched the display, soaking in the wonder before her like a sponge. 

A soft voice tickled her ear. It was hard to make out at first, but the more Rey concentrated, the clearer it became. Someone was calling her. No, calling her brother. It was light and calming, the sound of an old woman calling to her young children. 

“Grogu,” Rey murmured under her breath, tilting her head curiously. 

That was the baby’s name. Grogu. He didn’t say it, and yet somehow Rey knew. 

A happy little trill echoed in her mind, and the universe harmonized. 

She brought one hand up to clutch at the energy blanket, wrapping and twisting the otherworldly fabric between her fingers. The color rippled, changing from a soft pastel to an electric blue, to a searing white wherever she touched. The motion left a sweet taste in her mouth, almost candy-like in flavor. 

Then with her other hand, she reached up into the air, and let her fingertips brush against the path of one of the glitter trails. It felt cool, and left a sensation akin to having a chilled glass of water on a scorching summer day lingering within her very bones. 

Rey inhaled slowly. Paused. And breathed her emotions to life. 

_ Thank you. Happy. Calm. _

Almost immediately, Grogu bounced those same sentiments back, mixing them in with his constant stream of  _ Comfort. Safety. Warmth. _

Then after a moment of deliberation, Rey did something that she had never tried before. Something she didn’t even know if it would work. 

With a little bit of effort, Rey tugged at the connection. Just a little bit. Just enough to project her own thoughts into the glitter. 

_ Hello, there! _

She gathered the words, wrapped them up tight with threads of light, and sent them up and out to the trail. They floated along, meandering their way in the sparkly dust. Rey blew on them to speed it along. And then Rey watched as her words pooled in front of Grogu, and without a moment of hesitation he accepted her message.

A gentle, unspoken coo echoed in her mind, and she could almost hear an excited little  _ Hello! _ chime. 

Rey responded by bursting out into a fit of laughter and clapped her hands at her success. The glitter around her expanded and contracted in sync with the movement of her chest, changing colors from blue, to purple, to pink, and back to blue with every giggle that passed her lips.

And suddenly there was green, green, green, and more green than Rey had ever seen before in her life. Critters chittered in her head, a pleasant breeze brushed against her hair, and a group of children laughed as they ran through a tiny little village that looked so cozy and so very different from Niima Outpost. It felt so carefree and happy, that Rey was just about to burst. 

Rey stared at the scene in awe. She got the distinct impression that Grogu was puffing out his chest in pride, the little show-off. But in all honesty, his pridefulness was well deserved. Whatever this was, it looked incredible. 

Grogu nudged the trails without even moving a muscle, sending a thought down the line for Rey to unpack. It was information, an explanation. These were scenes, reconstructed from memory. Visions, if you will. 

Rey didn’t know something like this was possible. But then again, she had never met another who could interact with the universe on a level like Grogu could. At least, not that she remembered. 

The glitter blurred.

They were in a forest of weeping trees, crystalline waterfalls, smooth stepping stones, and elegant rainbow fish. No, it wasn’t a forest. It was a room. A large room could have been as big as a Star Cruiser as far as Rey was concerned. A room that had so many plants, so many fountains there must have been hundreds if not thousands of them. The whole place was swaddled with a sense of serenity. There were other people there too, sitting around crisscross applesauce just like Rey, watching the glitter ebb and flow alongside her. 

There was another shift.

Suddenly the sound of soft blaster fire rang her ears. the sulfuric taste of a volcanic planet touched her tongue, and a scene of an epic battle filled her field of vision. There was an odd looking assortment of people exchanging fire, and it seemed so intense! So exciting! And suddenly there were others who looked just like the Droid-Man! Flying through the air, and taking out the bad guys! 

It was so cool!

Blasters went Pew! Pew! Pew! Jetpacks went Fwooooooooosh! And the bad guys went Aaaaaaargggggg!

But the scene flickered for a moment, like a corrupted hologram. Then there were ‘troopers. A whole lot of them in their white armor and scary weapons.

Rey stopped moving, stopped breathing for one terrifying second as her brain struggled to process the sudden and unexpected shift of environments. Her thoughts flooded with memories of sneaking, running, hiding, doing everything possible to escape the notice of the stormtroopers.

She couldn’t focus on anything else. 

The fight faded, and the glowing blue blanket on her shoulders gave a comforting squeeze, and hummed like a smoothly running engine. Little pulses of emotion filtered through the lines of glitter.  _ Sorry. Comfort. Safe. _

Hesitantly, Rey reached back up and touched the trail again. 

_ I’m alright _ , she sent through the connection even though she wasn’t sure that she was, _ I’m alright _ . And she hoped that sentiment carried through. 

Rey blinked and a new scene played out in front of her. 

One centered on the Droid-man walking across sand dunes as a silhouette in the orange glow of a desert sunset with a blaster in hand and cape whipping in the wind. And suddenly he was fighting troopers, punching, kicking and shooting them down, not letting a single one get too close. And even when the Droid-man got hit with what should have been a lethal blaster bolt, his silver armor just deflected it as if the bolts were nothing. A sharp whistle sounded off, and a dozen tiny little rockets launched out of his gauntlet, taking out the whole group. 

In the image, the Droid-man was the last one standing, holding his weapons up in a defensive position. He was looking a little rough, but determined to his core. He was there, and not going anywhere. 

The entire scene was wrapped in the sentiment of  _ Protector. Guardian. Parent. _ And one word that meant all three of those things. 

_ Buir _

The Droid-man was Grogu’s Buir. He protected him. And the Droid-man would do the same for Rey. 

Grogu seemed to be insistent on that point. He believed it with all his heart. 

Rey wasn’t sure if she could believe in the Droid-man as strongly as Grogu did. Sure, he was nice. He let Rey into his home, he fed her, and even wasted medical supplies just to treat a bruise on her head. That wasn’t something a bad person would do.

That wasn’t something a person from Jakku would do. For anyone. 

And Rey felt the tendrils of guilt slowly creeping up on her. It made her feel squirmy, and weird. It also made her skin itch, so she scratched at her forearm to try and relieve the sensation. 

Here was this little family she was intruding on, consuming their valuable food and drinks, and taking up space on their ship. Rey knew, intellectually, that the Droid-man said that it was alright for her to stay and the little baby made it clear that he wanted to be around Rey and play with her.

But it felt strange to be on the receiving end of such hospitality after being on her own for so long. 

And it bothered her that her debt was mounting. She hadn’t even done anything to start repaying it. It was a constant weight on her mind, and she kept going back to it. 

The thing was, Rey didn’t know the Droid-man. Not well at least. She had the basic impression, a sense, of who he was. But Rey didn’t think it was enough for her to fully trust him. Not yet at least.

Rey didn’t know what to do.

But the universe had brought Rey to Grogu. 

They were meant to meet. Rey was as sure of this. And if she looked closely enough, and concentrated hard enough, she could see the thin outline of a silvery string that kind of reminded Rey of a fishing line that flickered in and out of sight. But there was no question that it existed. It was there. 

The delicate silver string was a thread that connected her heart to Grogu’s heart. 

Like the connections that once tied her to her parents, only fainter, newer, and with plenty of room to grow. 

That meant something. Something big. Something important. 

So, if Grogu believed that the Droid-man could protect Rey from bad guys, then Rey was willing to give that idea some merit. 

Rey twisted her hands together, cracked her knuckles, and then drummed her fingers against her knee. 

This was important. 

She mulled over the thought. 

This was important.

Important, important,  _ important. _

_ What is important? _

“What?” Rey asked out loud, startled at the sudden intruding thought in her mind. 

Grogu hadn’t moved. His eyes were closed, and he looked completely relaxed. But the glitter around him bubbled with his curiosity. And then Rey realised that she must have accidentally projected her thoughts. Passed it along through the glitter without her notice. 

His question came once more.  _ What is important? _

“Oh,” Rey breathed, and then she gestured at the silver string, “This is.” 

There was a pause, then Grogu’s eyes fluttered open. He squinted as if he wasn’t used to the light, and gave the space in front of him a puzzled look. He let out a high pitched warble, giving voice to his confusion. 

Rey tilted her head, glanced down at the silver string, glanced up at Grogu, and then glanced down again. She scrunched up her nose as she tried to figure out what was wrong. 

“You can’t see it?” Rey asked, just as bewildered as Grogu. But how could he not see the connection? Sure it was a little difficult to pinpoint it exactly, but it was also kind of hard to ignore when it was literally right there. 

Rey only got a blank expression and a  _??? _ from Grogu. 

“Look, it’s over here.” Rey tried again, pointing at the physical embodiment of the connection. Then for good measure, she tapped the silver string with her index finger as if she were pressing down on a piano key. 

That got an almost immediate reaction from Grogu. 

He quickly closed his eyes once more and latched onto the movement. Rey wasn’t really sure how to describe it, but it was as if his essence had wrapped itself around the string and began to vibrate with energy. 

Words that were not Rey’s own began to swirl in front of her, excitedly brushing against her mind. 

_Force Bond!_ _It’s a Force Bond!_

Rey tilted her head, “Is that what it’s called?” she asked, scrunching her face up. 

Grogu was quick to send an affirmative through the glitter.  _ Can sense the bond. _

It was a weird name. Force bond. 

She knew that in order to get the force of an object you had to multiply mass by acceleration, just like her Mommy taught her in their physics lessons, but how was force supposed to bond? Could it even bond? Was it like how itty bitty particles can bond, or was it more like slapping some glue on a couple pieces of paper and calling it a day? 

Rey eyed the silver string skeptically, then ducked her head to inspect it from a different angle. It didn’t look like it was accelerating anywhere, and it didn’t seem to have any mass or weight. 

The silver string didn’t seem like any force at all.

Why call it a Force Bond then? 

But Rey’s little brother seemed dead set on calling the silver string by that name. His feelings on the subject was strong enough that Rey could feel skin tingle as his intent leaked into the glitter. So Rey decided that she was just going to put those questions on the back burner for now. She could figure out how physics factored into glitter magic later. 

Besides, there were other matters Rey wanted to explore. 

She tugged at the string, and Grogu tugged back. They repeated the exchange for several rounds, like a modified version of tag. 

“So you can’t see the connection, right?” She asked, when they started to get bored of the little game, “Only feel it?” 

With his eyes still closed in concentration, Grogu nodded his head. 

“Is it invisible to you then?” 

The silver string pulsed, and another message filtered its way through the network of glitter trails. 

_ Visible in the Force. Invisible to the eyes.  _

“Then how come I can see it?” 

Grogu didn’t have an answer to that. 

Rey hummed to herself. Then with a dramatic sweep of her hands, she put on her imaginary thinking cap, and she concentrated very hard on her thoughts. 

Finally, she clapped her hands together and grinned. 

“I’m gonna try to show it to you!” she announced before she started grabbing at the glitter, left and right. She gathered it all up and began squishing, pulling, and molding it like clay. Willing it to take the form she wanted it to take with every fiber of her being. 

Grogu was oddly fascinated by her actions. 

As Rey worked, she could occasionally feel a slight tapping at her shoulders, and a persistent inkling of a  _ Whatchya doing? Whatchya doing?  _ Tickled the back of her neck. 

She gave the sensation a mental flick and a stern  _ Shhh! I’m almost done! _

Or at least as stern as she could be with her tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth as she focused on putting together her own glitterized construction. 

“Haha! There! Finished!” Rey loudly proclaimed, tossing her hands in the air in celebration. Then she grabbed a handful of the blue trails out of the air, and plugged them into her glitter glob like she would plug a wire into a socket. 

There was a momentary pause, where the swirls and whirls seemed to freeze in place. 

The glitter blurred.

And dispersed. 

On the surface, there seemed to be no change. The silver string was still there. The energy blanket remained as a comfortable weight on Rey’s shoulders. And the free-floating glitter still ambled along lazily around both Rey and Grogu. 

But that wasn’t what Rey was paying attention to. She stared unblinkingly at Grogu, waiting for his reaction with growing anticipation. 

There was a brief flutter of  _ Curious. Confusion. What? _

Rey could practically hear the gears turning in Grogu’s head. But then a moment turned into a minute, and Rey wavered slightly, “Did it work?” she asked tentatively. 

A beat passed, and Grogu sent a very definitive  _ Nope! _

Well, that wasn’t what Rey was hoping for. 

Something must have gone wrong, maybe when the glitter spread out all over the place? Was that supposed to happen? Maybe something got messed up when she plugged the trails in? Rey had no clue she was just kind of winging it and hoping for the best. 

“Ummm,” She shifted her sitting position so that she was kneeling, and she poked a few more of the glitter trails. “Hold on, give me a minute. I’m gonna redo this,” she decided. 

Grogu let out a little warble in acknowledgement, and settled back down. 

Rey had no plan, not even an inkling as to how she was supposed to get the result that she wanted. She knew that she should do something like what Grogu had done before, with all of the scenes and imagery that he had shown her earlier. But those were visions of memories, of scenes that had already happened. And Rey had tried to recreate that pattern in the glitter with modifications to create a sort-of-vision experience of what she could see in the presence. 

But that apparently backfired, so she needed to try a different way. 

Rey exhaled harshly, letting all the air she possibly could out of her lungs until they burned. Then very slowly and deliberately, she inhaled. The glitter responded, clumping up and moving together to form the shape it held before.

Then with a fine eye, she looked the blob up and down, clicking her tongue against the roof of her mouth as she judged the glitter blob. The glitter blob judged back. Rey didn’t like that so she blew a raspberry in retaliation.

“Alright, maaaaybe if I do this,” She said, sticking two glitter trails into the top of the blob in a way that made them look like bunny ears. She paused for a moment to appreciate the sight before she got right back to work. 

Rey pulled down more and more trails, sticking them all over the blob, twisting them around, and tying them up in neat little bows to fasten it all together. 

When she was done for the second time, Rey leaned back, put her hands on her hips and inspected her messy creation. It looked like a giant pufferfish. Large, spikey, and with a big ol’ smiley face that Rey had carved out with her thumb onto one of its flatter surfaces.

“Ok, ok,” Rey said holding her hands up with her fingers spread out as if she was acting as a spotter for the blob, “Seems like it’s holding together. Alright, you try reaching out this time.”

Grogu was quick to oblige, expanding his essence and wrapping it around the glitter blob.

They waited. Nothing happened. Grogu retreated, with the sentiment of a sheepish apology dancing in the air. 

“Urg! This is so frustrating!” Rey scowled, clutching at her hair. She blinked as she sensed a sudden shift in the air, “No, I’m not mad at you Grogu. You’re perfect. I’m mad at myself and this stupid dum-dum of a blob that doesn’t. Do. What. It’s. Supposed to. DO!”

Then before she could think better of it, Rey reared her arm back and punched the blob as hard as she possibly could.

It exploded. 

A cascade of dust rained down on the two children as Rey watched in stunned silence. 

“Whoops,” She squeaked, shocked by the consequences of her own actions. Rey opened her mouth, ready to apologize herself and offer up some more solutions when suddenly-

_!!! _

Pure, unadulterated shock pulsed through the trails, leaking into the very air itself before turning into a wave of overwhelming excitement. 

“Do you see it? Do you see the string?” Rey asked, her excitement rising to match Grogu’s burst of exhilaration.

_ I see it!  _ Grogu trilled in Rey’s mind,  _ The Force bond! Everything! _

Rey let out a happy squeal. “It worked!” Then her smile widened as a gleam reflected in her eyes. “I guess violence really is the answer!” 

Grogu cooed in agreement. 

“This is so cool! I have no idea what to do next but let's experiment while this vision thing still works!” 

Almost half an hour later, the Droid-man climbed down the ladder that led up to the cockpit of the ship. He paused on the last rung with his foot hovering just above the floor as the sound of laughter flooded the cargo hold. 

He turned his head and was greeted by the sight of two little children, huddled together in a makeshift pillow fort within the repurposed smuggling compartment. 

One sitting quietly in a meditative stance, with his eyes closed and his ears perked attentively. The other bouncing on her knees, flapping her arms around like one of those inflatable arm flailing tube men that were prevalent at used spaceship dealerships. 

Very quietly, the Droid-man lowered himself to the ground, making sure to step softly so as not to disturb anything or bring attention to himself.

He crossed his arms, and leaned against the metal wall. Content in observing as the kids played their games. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well this chapter turned out longer to write than anticipated, but I hope you guys liked the force shenanigans. 
> 
> Also! Here’s a breakdown of the story timeline as it is in case any of you are interested, because with the new plot direction, some changes have been made!
> 
> This fic takes place after the end of season 1 of the Mandalorian in 9 ABY but before the start of season 2. This means that Rey was born around 2-3 ABY. For the purposes of this fic, every major character from the sequel has already been born and are at a minimum two years old. For example, Ben Solo was still born 5 ABY (Rey is now the older of the two) and Finn who was originally born 11 ABY is now born 7 ABY making him two years old at the present moment in this fic. The events of the Sequel movies will probably happen a few years earlier than in canon, but not by much, just around 30-35 ABY. That part of the timeline doesn’t need to be specific right now. 
> 
> Anyway, thank you all for reading! I appreciate the support!
> 
> Until next time!
> 
> Lost-In-The-Muse

**Author's Note:**

> This story was inspired by the amazing mutalune and their story Dry as a Bone, because I cannot get enough of the idea of Din going around adopting all of the kids. Seriously, go check out their story, it’s basically marshmallow fluff in fanfic form, and at this point its cuteness levels has reached lethal proportions.


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